Leutaschklamm Waterfall

The Leutaschklamm Waterfall was at the bottom of the impressive Leutaschklamm Gorge, which was right at the Germany and Austria border near Mittenwald, Germany. Although the impressive gorge itself with its high vertigo-inducing catwalks and a bridge that traversed the deep chasm was free to explore, the most interesting part of the gorge including the 23m waterfall required a fee. Naturally, I did the paid part of the gorge, and here’s how it went.

From the street parking spaces at the southern end of Mittenwald (see directions below), I walked along the Innsbruckerstrasse across a bridge over the Isar River. Just on the other side of the bridge, I crossed the road and entered a small alleyway called Am Köberl. I then followed this gentle and flat path for about 800m as it followed along the Leutascher Ache and revealed a beautiful valley backed by tall mountains and fronted by farms with green pastures.

Eventually, I reached a kiosk at the mouth of the Leutaschklamm Gorge just past a trail junction where a separate path steeply climbed towards the elevated catwalks and bridges as that would eventually hook up with the trail coming from the car park on the Austria side via the so-called Gleisterklamm (or Spirit Gorge). In any case, I went up to the kiosk, paid my 2 euro admission, and then promptly went up a boardwalk the followed along the contour of the narrow but deep gorge.

After about 200m within the gorge, the boardwalk reached a dead-end right in front of the partially visible Leutaschklamm Waterfall. Due to the tight confines of the chasm combined with the reverberating properties of the hard rock walls, the sound of the crashing water was deafening. This was my turnaround point, and it could have been the end of a short excursion. However, I opted to extend my visit and do a longer loop hike on the so-called Goblin Trail, which added another 1.9km to the overall excursion.

So back at the kiosk, I then took the ascending trail that went up several switchbacks where each one had an interpretive sign talking about the gorge and its creation dating back to the previous Ice Ages. After the steep climb topped out, it eventually descended a series of steps on steel catwalks leading down to a junction right at one end of an impressive bridge spanning the gorge itself.

I could have continued straight and really extend the hike for at least another 3km to check out the Mountain Spirit Gorge Trail (leading to the Leutasch Gorge Kiosk and car park on the Austria side), but I opted to cross the bridge instead. At this vantage point, I was able to see more smaller cascades way down in the chasm while also getting teasing glimpses further downstream towards the Karwendelspitze and wall on the opposite side of the valley.

Beyond the bridge, the path ascended a little more before descending down a forested track past a farm, and ultimately circling back to the mouth of the Leutaschklamm Gorge. From there, I wrapped up the excursion along the Am Köberl Road before returning to the Innsbruckerstraße and parking area back on the other side of the Isar River.

Overall, if I had just done the waterfall on its own, then this excursion should take no more than an hour. However, since I extended it with the Goblin Trail Loop, I wound up spending almost two hours away from the car. The bad weather also slowed things down a bit.